A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
🌷🌷🌷 August 29🌷🌷🌷
“… And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
In I John 2:1 we read that the Lord Jesus is our Advocate, Who is always ready to intercede on our behalf. Also we read in Jer. 50:34, “Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land.” The children of Israel were taken captive by their enemies. Their enemies persecuted them, and would not set them free. But God intervened on their behalf and by His mighty power brought them out of captivity. In the same way, when we fall into some sin or temptation, the enemy refuses to release us. We think by our cleverness and Bible knowledge we can overcome but we fail. We must ask, “Lord, this is my weakness and failure. Kindly intercede on my behalf and deliver me from Satan’s hands.” By faith we have to claim constantly the high priestly ministry of our Lord on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ Who lives for ever pleads for us and delivers us from our failures. We have to recognise that without Him we can do nothing. We have to depend upon His intercessory ministry till we come to His perfection. For that purpose He gave all that He had, and bought us with His precious blood. In 1 Peter 1:16 He says, “Be ye holy; for I am holy”, so to be brought to His perfection we need His intercessory ministry.
In the Old Testament period, thousands of sacrifices were offered by the priests. But no one could obtain perfection through their service or ministry (Heb. 7:19). They were only a shadow of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus (Heb. 8:5). Melchizedek as a priest of the most high God appeared to Abraham and brought heavenly food for him which strengthened him in the hour of temptation. But he could not help Abraham to come to perfection. By giving His whole body to be broken and having conquered death on our behalf, the Lord Jesus Christ has now become our heavenly High Priest, through Whom we attain perfection (Heb.7:24, 25). By His one perfect sacrifice He makes us perfect through His own perfection. Every time we fall, we can go to Him with all humility and brokenness. He will lift us up by His high priestly ministry. This does not mean that we can go on sinning, but we need to recognise our human limitation and depend upon His ministry.
